Jema

You will get a disclaimer like that from almost any company you ask. Even the manufacturers who put gluten-free on their packaging often do not have such verification for every single ingredient they use. The disclaimer is for legal liability purposes.

You may choose not to use such products, but by making that choice you will be excluding the vast majority of products available to us which are, in fact, safe to use.

I disagree. I've spoken to many companies about this kind of thing. Most know if their ingredients contain gluten or not. If they are not certifying their product, it is most probably because they know there is a gluten source.

Just wanted to correct something above. A 2004 post claimed that Chapstick is gluten free. I don't know if it was in 2004, but it is not certified by the company to be gluten free in 2009. I called a couple of days ago and the representative said that they do not have verification from every one of their ingredient suppliers that each is gluten free. Celiac's should not use Chapstick.

Nearly one year later, the promise they made to you in their email is still a fantasy. I bought a bag of utz chips yesterday, ate them last night and spent all day in the emergency room today. I was diagnosed as having Celiac last October. I've been doing extremely well on the diet and only bought the chips because they claimed to be "gluten free food" with absolutely no warning about cross-contamination. This is what I wrote in response to my experience today:

I must say that I am really disappointed in UTZ. You are irresponsibly mislabeling your products "gluten free", leading the consumer to believe that there is no danger of cross contamination. I have been diagnosed with Celiac disease and had been doing really well on the gluten free diet until eating your "crisp all natural potato chips". I spent all day in the emergency room today after reacting to your product.

I've have now visited several on-line forums related to your product misrepresentation. Many people have posted their communications to your company about this issue and your responses. A year ago a representative of your company assured one poster that you were going to change the labeling to include a warning about cross-contamination. Interestingly, the package I bought yesterday includes absolutely NO such warning - one year later no less. Has this package really been sitting in a warehouse for a whole year - or is your company really that greedy? You are willing to put the 100,000 diagnosed Americans (and an estimated additional 2.9 million undiagnosed) at risk because - what - you don't think Celiac disease is a real thing?

I want to let you know that I am beginning an aggressive anti-utz campaign and will be posting this information from blog spots to you-tube. I shall encourage other sufferers to do the same until your packaging changes. We 100,000 may not represent a large portion of your consumer base, but thanks to the internet we can really do some serious PR damage. Maybe when your company is visiting the metaphorical emergency room, puking and bleeding your profits away, the label will change? I guess we'll see.

Sorry UTZ. No-one should have to suffer what I suffered today simply because a greedy company doesn't feel like changing it's packaging.

With absolute sincerity,

Jema

I urge anyone who has had a similar experience to email the company then post your experience in every gluten-free blog spot you can find!!

Take care all.